![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Veganism (or, Ohmygodanotherpostsosoon?)
Mar. 24th, 2008 09:14 am(The following is an excerpt from a forthcoming first-coming[0] email.)
So I go vegan for Lent every year [1] or at least have for the past few years. Easter happened recently. In previous years, the first day I could be not-vegan I immediately starting scarfing cheese and was like ``Oh thank God, I can finally eat food again.'' This year my response was more ``Oh man, but I don't _want_ to stop being vegan!'' I thought about this for a while and decided that I can always stop being vegan later. I don't expect it to last forever, but until my body really starts complaining, I'm going to stick with the veganism. If this is forever, OK.
Why? Well, the tongue-in-cheek but not untrue explanation is that I enjoy dietary restrictions. The answer by someone else that I most resonate with is one Mr. Schmidt's ``I was vegan yesterday, so I am vegan today,'' but that's a bit sassy as well. It's almost easier to take some common reasons for veganism and explain why I don't share them and see what's left, so that is what I am going to do:
* I am not vegan because I believe it is wrong to eat animals or animal products. Things eat each other; I eat things whose relatives will, ultimately, eat me. (Can I be buried under lentils?) Being able to choose what I eat to the point where I eliminate large swaths of the grocery store is a privilege caused by my having money and being near grocery stores in the first place. That doesn't mean the right thing to do is throw my money in a fire and move somewhere without stores, but it's worth keeping in mind.
* I am not vegan to protest the meat industry. I've read both evidence I trust and shock pamphlets about how bad the meat industry is, and I'm confident that I am not comfortable what happens to the animals raised as food sources. However, the meat industry and the farm industry and the shipping industry are all exploitative of _humans_, which is (on most days) more important to me. Eating avocado picked by migrant workers who don't make a living wage or benefits is, if not worse than eating meat packed in a plant, at least on the same order of magnitude of increasing suck in the world. Buying organic and local helps some, but I don't always do that and if that were my main goal I'd be limiting my diet by sustainability and human rights rather than by whether or not it came from \textit{animalia}.
* I am not vegan because I don't enjoy food that isn't vegan. While I don't enjoy most large hunks of meat and have never really liked egg, I'm a huge fan of cheese and in the past years of vegetarianism have really missed eel and prosciutto.
* I am not vegan because being vegan is cool. Being vegan is mostly annoying; while occasional random dykes[2] and such will be like ``Oh my god you're _vegan_ that's so _awesome_ I did that for a while'' I am not really interested in hitting it off with people on the basis of what we each choose to not eat.[3] Except maybe to exchange recipes. I'm not interested in using my diet as a statement about my personal politics; I'd rather use my personal politics as a statement about my personal politics.
* I am not vegan for spiritual reasons. ...except inasmuch as ``performing randomly selected rituals that are not tied to any actual spiritual background'' is as close as I come to spirituality. There are a number of spiritual/religious traditions that embrace veganism and other dietary restrictions, and while their practitioners and I may be getting some of the same benefits[4] and vitamin deficiencies from the experience, I think they're coming from a different place than I am.
* I am not vegan just to be weird. I know a lot of people who are intentionally weird at the world around them for no apparent reason other than to push back against the world seeming weird to them. I have mixed feelings on this and have done my own share in the past, but not eating animal products isn't meant to serve that purpose. (The stripey socks might be.)
So what's left? ``Because I feel like it,'' mostly.[5] Well, that's a fine reason. :) I don't think being vegan is any worse than not being vegan, nor do I think it's any better. It's just what I'm going to do for a while. It helps me eat less junk food, too, though I recently discovered that Oreos have been reformulated to be vegan. TEMPTATION IN COOKIE FORM.
Stay good, Rachel!!!
[0] first-coming is a mailing list where I write long-form about my life: Horribly casual essay-ish updates on the project of being me. (Do you see what I did there? I think I understand how academics use the word "project" now.) I pull many fewer punches there than I do on LiveJournal since potential future employers are much less likely to find it. Hi, potential future employers!
[1] I don't celebrate most (all?) other Christian holidays, nor do I really consider myself Christian, though I grew up steeped in the traditions and theology. I just find Lent really useful to me and so I practice it.
[2] Dyke is not intended as a pejorative; I call myself a dyke periodically. ``You're allowed to do that with language, right?'' Maybe what I really mean is ``people in line at the Diesel.''
[3] If I turn on the Imagination Machine and try to picture myself dating a meat eater, though, it doesn't work so well; it seems like there would be _logistical_ problems if nothing else. Luckily I don't need to worry about this.
[4] Do you know how hard it is to get vegan food poisoning? :)
[5] Well, and it allows me to wander around the grocery store with a handful of vegan burgers saying ``Veganveganveganveganvegan'' like the bacon dog from the tele-vision. For some of us, this is sufficient reason alone.
So I go vegan for Lent every year [1] or at least have for the past few years. Easter happened recently. In previous years, the first day I could be not-vegan I immediately starting scarfing cheese and was like ``Oh thank God, I can finally eat food again.'' This year my response was more ``Oh man, but I don't _want_ to stop being vegan!'' I thought about this for a while and decided that I can always stop being vegan later. I don't expect it to last forever, but until my body really starts complaining, I'm going to stick with the veganism. If this is forever, OK.
Why? Well, the tongue-in-cheek but not untrue explanation is that I enjoy dietary restrictions. The answer by someone else that I most resonate with is one Mr. Schmidt's ``I was vegan yesterday, so I am vegan today,'' but that's a bit sassy as well. It's almost easier to take some common reasons for veganism and explain why I don't share them and see what's left, so that is what I am going to do:
* I am not vegan because I believe it is wrong to eat animals or animal products. Things eat each other; I eat things whose relatives will, ultimately, eat me. (Can I be buried under lentils?) Being able to choose what I eat to the point where I eliminate large swaths of the grocery store is a privilege caused by my having money and being near grocery stores in the first place. That doesn't mean the right thing to do is throw my money in a fire and move somewhere without stores, but it's worth keeping in mind.
* I am not vegan to protest the meat industry. I've read both evidence I trust and shock pamphlets about how bad the meat industry is, and I'm confident that I am not comfortable what happens to the animals raised as food sources. However, the meat industry and the farm industry and the shipping industry are all exploitative of _humans_, which is (on most days) more important to me. Eating avocado picked by migrant workers who don't make a living wage or benefits is, if not worse than eating meat packed in a plant, at least on the same order of magnitude of increasing suck in the world. Buying organic and local helps some, but I don't always do that and if that were my main goal I'd be limiting my diet by sustainability and human rights rather than by whether or not it came from \textit{animalia}.
* I am not vegan because I don't enjoy food that isn't vegan. While I don't enjoy most large hunks of meat and have never really liked egg, I'm a huge fan of cheese and in the past years of vegetarianism have really missed eel and prosciutto.
* I am not vegan because being vegan is cool. Being vegan is mostly annoying; while occasional random dykes[2] and such will be like ``Oh my god you're _vegan_ that's so _awesome_ I did that for a while'' I am not really interested in hitting it off with people on the basis of what we each choose to not eat.[3] Except maybe to exchange recipes. I'm not interested in using my diet as a statement about my personal politics; I'd rather use my personal politics as a statement about my personal politics.
* I am not vegan for spiritual reasons. ...except inasmuch as ``performing randomly selected rituals that are not tied to any actual spiritual background'' is as close as I come to spirituality. There are a number of spiritual/religious traditions that embrace veganism and other dietary restrictions, and while their practitioners and I may be getting some of the same benefits[4] and vitamin deficiencies from the experience, I think they're coming from a different place than I am.
* I am not vegan just to be weird. I know a lot of people who are intentionally weird at the world around them for no apparent reason other than to push back against the world seeming weird to them. I have mixed feelings on this and have done my own share in the past, but not eating animal products isn't meant to serve that purpose. (The stripey socks might be.)
So what's left? ``Because I feel like it,'' mostly.[5] Well, that's a fine reason. :) I don't think being vegan is any worse than not being vegan, nor do I think it's any better. It's just what I'm going to do for a while. It helps me eat less junk food, too, though I recently discovered that Oreos have been reformulated to be vegan. TEMPTATION IN COOKIE FORM.
Stay good, Rachel!!!
[0] first-coming is a mailing list where I write long-form about my life: Horribly casual essay-ish updates on the project of being me. (Do you see what I did there? I think I understand how academics use the word "project" now.) I pull many fewer punches there than I do on LiveJournal since potential future employers are much less likely to find it. Hi, potential future employers!
[1] I don't celebrate most (all?) other Christian holidays, nor do I really consider myself Christian, though I grew up steeped in the traditions and theology. I just find Lent really useful to me and so I practice it.
[2] Dyke is not intended as a pejorative; I call myself a dyke periodically. ``You're allowed to do that with language, right?'' Maybe what I really mean is ``people in line at the Diesel.''
[3] If I turn on the Imagination Machine and try to picture myself dating a meat eater, though, it doesn't work so well; it seems like there would be _logistical_ problems if nothing else. Luckily I don't need to worry about this.
[4] Do you know how hard it is to get vegan food poisoning? :)
[5] Well, and it allows me to wander around the grocery store with a handful of vegan burgers saying ``Veganveganveganveganvegan'' like the bacon dog from the tele-vision. For some of us, this is sufficient reason alone.